Our problems stem from our acceptance of this filthy, rotten system
– attributed to Dorothy Day
Category: Uncategorized
A Letter from Open Door Community
June 2016
Dear Friends,
This is a letter we never thought we would have to write, and it’s breaking our hearts.
We have come to a time that the Open Door Community cannot move forward in the way that we have lived and worked for the past 35 years. While we plan to continue some parts of our ministry including our newspaper, Hospitality, we anticipate that in January 2017 our house at 910 Ponce de Leon Avenue, the location of our residential community and hub of our ministry, will close. The building will close; some of the ministry will continue. There are three primary reasons for this change. Continue reading “A Letter from Open Door Community”
Dad and Dan
By Bill Ramsey. May 1, 2016.
Dad and Dan, an unlikely pair
to walk across heaven’s threshold
a week apart, a world apart.
Way back when Dan’s burning action
kindled my conflicted conscience,
radically realigning my course,
Dad foresaw impending danger,
a tableau of “G-men” ascending
his steep suburban driveway
in pursuit of his willful son. Continue reading “Dad and Dan”
Shedding tears
“The fruits of the inner man begin only with the shedding of tears. When you reach the place of tears, then know that your spirit has come out from the prison of this world and has set its foot upon the path that leads towards the new age.”
~St. Isaac of Nineveh
Deer- Mentors
By Nancy Canon, from Frogs and other Soul Friends: Reflections from the Forest
You ask my ancestry?
German, maybe Irish,
I don’t know, but
This I do know.
I am part deer! Continue reading “Deer- Mentors”
Communion
The universe is composed of subjects to be communed with, not objects to be exploited. Everything has its own voice. Thunder and lighting and stars and planets, flowers, birds, animals, trees- all these have voices, and they constitute a community of existence that is profoundly related. – Thomas Berry
Mary and Martha
By Laurel Dykstra
Luke 10. 38-42
I don’t like the story of Mary and Martha.
Most of us already know if we are more like Mary, who sits at Jesus’ feet, or more like Martha, who is distracted by her many tasks. And it seems to me that no matter how nice they try to be about it, most of the sermons and commentaries on this passage seem to say, “Yay Mary and Boo Martha” Continue reading “Mary and Martha”
THIS IS WHAT IT WILL TAKE
By Ric Hudgens
My eighty-year old neighbor,
a man of deep, abiding faith,
now frail and bent with age,
who marched
when marching made a difference,
once upon a time
late at night
heard a yell
from our alley. Continue reading “THIS IS WHAT IT WILL TAKE”
Guns
By Joyce Hollyday
I learned about the power of guns when I was nine years old. I had a red felt cowgirl hat that tightened with a white cord under my chin, a holster made of stamped fake leather, and two toy metal six-shooters. When I waved them around shouting “Bang, bang!” I imagined myself out in The Wild West among the saloon owners and cattle rustlers I saw on TV—someplace like Texas. Continue reading “Guns”
Some we share, some we do not.
“Some problems we share as women, some we do not. You fear your children will grow up to join the patriarchy and testify against you; we fear our children will be dragged from a car and shot down in the street, and you will turn your backs on the reasons they are dying.” – Audre Lorde
Radical Discipleship 